Medical teams traveling from the U.S. to developing countries are a cornerstone of Healing the Children's mission to provide medical care for children who lack adequate access to treatment. Surgical teams treated 3,753 kids during these trips in 2016.

The Southern California Chapter of Healing the Children conducted its 9th Annual Orthopedic mission to Kathmandu, Nepal in March 2016. This ongoing partnership with the Nepal Orthopedic Hospital provides foot and ankle surgery for Nepalese children.

Healing the Children envisions a world where every child has access to the medical care they need, unhindered by economic, geographic, social, and political barriers. It is our mission to help children overcome those barriers. For some kids, treatment in the U.S. by our partner hospitals and volunteer medical professionals - with the loving care of local host families - is the best or only option.

In 2016, Healing the Children provided urgently needed medical care to 9,173 children in 24 countries, and delivered $15 million in medical services and supplies, with less than 2% non-program overhead costs.

Miss World America Clarissa Bowers is among the many Healing the Children volunteers who give selflessly of their time, skills, and energy to provide care and healing for kids who would otherwise lack access to the help they need.

Zulea suffers from an unknown dermatological scalp condition that caused irrevocable damage to her hair follicles and caused extensive open wounds that covered 70% of her scalp. Cancer was suspected but biopsies showed that was not the case. Extensive testing including genetic testing was performed. Her condition to this day remains undiagnosed, baffling over 20 specialists from across the United States who consulted on her case.